1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates generally to surveying systems. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to surveying and construction drawing navigation systems that may utilize a restricted antenna system and a Global Positioning System (GPS)-enabled handheld device to spatially locate the device within a planned site, with the construction drawings displayed on the device.
2. Related Art
Surveying is the technique of accurately determining the three-dimensional position of points and the distances and angles between them, utilizing in part geometry and trigonometry. In surveying, various kinds of surveying instruments, such as theodolites or total stations, are commonly used for measuring distances and/or angles of objects. Conventionally, these surveying instruments are mounted on a stand to stably position the surveying instrument on the ground and have a head that may be moved with respected to the stand. The head generally includes an optical device, such as a ranging or sighting device for focusing on an object.
Typically, construction drawings are made up of a site layout plan and a floor plan, which will contain gridlines for the desired dimensions of the construction. In order to establish the gridlines at the construction site, a surveying team will take a government land survey plan featuring true coordinate control points, will establish control points at the construction site, and will then proceed to set out the gridlines at the construction site. This is typically achieved by one surveyor manning a total station at a known given point, or “monument,” and at least one additional surveyor manning a target and physically moving the target into sight of the total station at set locations to establish the gridlines. This method, however, can be cumbersome in that it requires a team of skilled surveyors to man the total station and the targets to physically mark the control lines.
Improvements to this method are known in the art, for example, total stations now allow for the construction drawings to be loaded directly into the total station, thereby having the points and elevations contained within the system to speed up and simplify the process of targeting the specific points. However, even with this improvement a team of surveyors is still needed to man the total station and to physically move the target around the construction site.
Further improvements known in the art include remotely controlled total stations, wherein a single surveyor may remotely operate the total station while moving the target from location to location and viewing the sight of the total station via a remote viewing device. However, this still requires a skilled surveyor to operate the total station and move the target from point to point.
Regardless of the improvements described above, laying out the control points and gridlines is time consuming and inefficient. In particular, laying out the control points and gridlines must be performed numerous times during construction. At the very least, each subcontractor must perform their own laying out of control points and gridlines to properly perform their services. Further, the gridlines can be disturbed during construction and/or during periods of inactivity (such as overnight periods between construction). As such, the laying out of gridlines and control points may need to be performed as often as daily. Accordingly, it can be seen that this repetition of laying out the gridlines and control points is a point of inefficiency in the construction process.
As such, there is a need for an improved surveying system that allows for users to quickly and easily locate themselves within the site, and for the one time establishment of site construction control points in an efficient manner without the need to repeat the process frequently. Additionally, there is a need for a system to graphically locate a user of the system within the site and to visually display the location in relation to the site layout plan or the floor plan of the intended construction.